Average world cereal prices rose in May to a 19-month high due to cost pressures in fuel and fertiliser linked to the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
In its monthly report tracking five key commodities, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned of the risks to global food prices from a potential reduction in fertiliser use.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Around 40% of the world’s fertiliser supply comes from the Middle East, where the major shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began in late February.
While the overall FAO food index tracking the prices of cereals, meat, dairy, oils and sugar dipped 0.2% in May from a month earlier, it was 2.9% higher than in May 2025. At 130.8 last month, the reading was the highest since the 131.4 average reached in January 2023.
Meanwhile, the sub-gauge for cereals climbed 2.6% month-on-month and was up 5% from a year earlier “reflecting higher prices across all major cereals amid higher fuel and fertiliser costs globally and weather-related pressures”, the FAO said.
The cereals index averaged 114.3 last month, a level not seen since the 114.4 result in October 2024, the FAO’s historical records show.
Boubaker Ben-Belhassen, the director of the FAO’s Markets and Trade division, said today (5 June): “While global food commodity markets have remained broadly resilient, rising cereal prices underscore vulnerability to weather-related risks and disruptions in energy and input markets.
“Continued uncertainty affecting key trade routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, could reduce fertiliser use and place additional pressure on food prices, highlighting the need for coordinated international action.”
Within the components of the cereals index, global wheat prices rose 3.4% on month in May and were up 7.8% from the same month last year.
Maize prices increased 1.9% and 3.9%, respectively.
The FAO’s All-Rice Price Index climbed 2.7% from April as “weather concerns and higher crude oil and derived product prices underpinned quotations in some leading Asian exporting countries”, the UN body said.
For meat, that index edged up 0.1% to 130.5, its highest level in the FAO’s readings going back to 1990.
“World bovine meat prices rose on the back of robust import demand, particularly from China and the United States of America, while pig meat prices declined, mainly due to lower prices in the European Union amid abundant supplies and subdued import demand,” the FAO said.
The dairy index dipped 0.5% month-on-month led by butter prices.
Sugar prices rose 7.5% from a month earlier, an increase the FAO said was due to “concerns that El Niño conditions could adversely affect production in India and Thailand in the year ahead”.
Vegetable oils were the only component of the FAO’s Food Price Index to post a decline in May, its first retreat this year.
The sub-gauge dropped 4.6% linked to a decline in world palm oil prices “due to expectations of weaker global import demand and uncertainty in crude oil markets”, the FAO said. Rapeseed and sunflower oil prices rose on “tight supply conditions”.
